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Police target drug trade in battle against Surrey’s violent crime

Eight search warrants executed and 56 arrests made in last three weeks, mayor says

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, right, said she is pushing for more social services from the provincial government and that crime is still an issue with Surrey’s growing population.

Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

METRO VANCOUVER -- With criticism over Surrey’s murder rate reaching a crescendo after the beating death of 53-year-old mother in Newton, Mayor Dianne Watts detailed Friday how police have targeted the drug trade on the advice of her special task force on violent crime.

Newton and Whalley now have 49 more officers that have redeployed from other duties to crack down on the drug houses and drug dealers often linked to violent crime in the city, Watts said.

“When we identify the causal factors of the murders (in 2013), most of them — 18 — are from a high-risk lifestyle,” Watts said. “So, we needed to interrupt the activity of the (Dial-A-Dope) lines, of the drug dealers and any comfort they may have felt in any area of the city.”

In the past three weeks, eight search warrants have been executed at drug houses and 56 arrests have been made, while six vehicles were seized, Watts added.

Surrey created headlines last month after a record 25 homicides were recorded in 2013, the last of which was the shocking beating death of Julie Paskall.

Paskall was severely beaten, with what investigators believe may have been a rock, during a robbery Sunday around 9:30 p.m. as she waited to pick up her teen son outside the Newton Arena. She died Tuesday after her family decided to pull her off life support, launching an intensive police murder investigation and leaving the community in a state of shock.

Watts said Friday that lighting and sight lines are being reviewed at the facility and the dark grove of trees nearby will be cut down. Security and volunteer foot patrols of the facility have also been stepped up.

After Paskall’s death, Newton community groups decried what they saw as the displacement of crime to their neighbourhood after the gentrification of nearby Whalley. Watts said during the development of the area now known as Central City, her government worked with the provincial social service providers to tackle issues such as homelessness and addiction.

“We identified that we would not want to have any of the social issues that Whalley had to go into any other community, whether it was Guildford, whether it was Newton or Cloverdale,” Watts said.

Still, she said she is pushing for more social services from the provincial government and that crime is still an issue with Surrey’s growing population.

University of the Fraser Valley criminologist and Surrey task force member Irwin Cohen said residents of crime-plagued Newton can help clean up their community by calling the police any time they see an illegal or criminal act.

Studies show that victims of crime often don’t phone police because they think either the matter is too petty or that police “can’t or won’t do anything about it,” Cohen said.

“Both those reasons are pretty tragic,” he said. “Anytime you’re a victim of any type of crime, to think that ‘it’s not that big a deal, no one will care, I won’t bother’ — (it) is not a great attitude to have.”

Community groups are also part of the equation and can come together to form organizations like block watches to bolster public safety, he added.

Next Monday the Newton Community Association is doing just that, by holding a 7 p.m. meeting at the Newton Seniors Centre so residents can raise concerns about crime and work on solutions.

Meanwhile, a trust fund under the name “Paskall Family Trust” has been set up at all Vancity Credit Union branches for members of the public to help the slain mother’s surviving four family members.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has no suspects and no witnesses to Paskall’s attack.

IHIT is asking anyone who has information about Paskall’s death or was in the area of the Newton Arena, Newton bus loop and Newton Wave pool between 7 and 11 p.m. on Sunday to call the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-4448.

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